


Various Cons

by QuimbyCub



Category: Leverage
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-01
Updated: 2013-11-01
Packaged: 2017-12-31 03:38:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 4,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1026806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuimbyCub/pseuds/QuimbyCub
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Compilation of many short Leverage fics.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Family Anywhere Else

Eliot knows he will never have a family. He will never have kids. It's not that he doesn't want 'em, he does. He loves kids, he's great with 'em, but he will never have a family. For starters, he has too much baggage from his job. What would he do if the slayer of Slovakia showed up at a city park? He'd have to do something but… No, his past makes common situation dangerous. Then there was the honest fact that he doesn't like the idea of just settling down, he'd get restless. And then he worries, about what might happen if he lost his temper. He's never hit a kid, or a woman, but he's not been around one like that. He worries that he'd make a mistake, that his basic nature would show through, and that someone would get hurt.

Hardison knows he wants to have a family. A really big one, like the way he grew up. But he knows that he will never have one because he could never stop doing what he loves. He'll never be ready to "settle down". And there are very few women out there who would appreciate that. He doesn't want to get a desk job, but he would have to get some kind of cover if he wanted find someone who wanted him for something other than his bank accounts. Even if he could change for a woman, and have a family, even if they had the white picket fence; he couldn't stay that way long. He'd need to something, and he'd think he could hide it, just to save her the grief. But that's his concern, he's sure of it; he'd worry that he'd make a mistake, that his basic nature would show through, and that someone would get hurt.

Parker knows she has had a family and never will. She's mostly okay with this. She likes kids, sure, but doubts that she could take care of one. She can't change a diaper or anything, but she could learn and would, if need be. She's never been in love, either, but she would like to be. She wants someone to care about her, not necessarily romance, chocolate and roses, but care. She wants someone to care about her beyond sex, and money, and stuff. But she doesn't like people that much, she has to get used to them. And she knows she can't be a thief and settle down, she likes being a thief, she's good at it. In fact, every time she tries to date, to meet someone she might build a family with, she'll walk away with a new watch or bracelet. It's fun for her, but she knows its bad. And she knows she can't base jump, or play with fire, or keep stacks of cash around kids. So she could try and change, she does sometimes, and if she had a real kid she try harder. But she knows that she is a thief. And even if she was a really great mom; she'd worry that she'd make a mistake, that her basic nature would show through, and that someone would get hurt.

Sophie knows that she will never have a family. She totally certain of it. She just can't build bloody relationships. She can't tell the truth about her life cause it's rubbish, she can't lie cause that's rubbish too. Catch 22, she just ca not win. She wants a relationship. She wants a family, wants kids. She wants the lovely yellow house with a porch swing and a fluffy white dog… She just can't. She can't trust anyone, can't bring herself to it, so she lies, so much so, that no one trusts her. And then there's her thievery. She is a thief and a grafter. She steals, she has a storage unit of priceless, well very expensive, works of art. How do explain that to the husband. "Dear, when you draw up the will, leave the Monet's to Aunt Kate." She could not do that. Even if she came clean about her past, became an honest citizen she's not even sure about being tied down. And she'd never stop lying. And her lies, well, they hurt people, get people in trouble, and 'sorry' doesn't cut it with everyone. If she did, it wouldn't last long. She can't help it, and it bothers her. She'd be trying so hard to be honest, that it's all she'd do. She'd worry that she'd make a mistake, that her basic nature would show through, and that someone would get hurt.

Nathan knows that he will never have another family. He doesn't think he needs one. He doesn't need the heartache, the baggage, the anchor. He had a family, and that was it. You only get one chance, and he screwed up. He's thought about making a new family, trying to love people again. But he knows it's not fair. After all, what happened to his first family was his fault. He couldn't get Sam the treatment. Him, he couldn't. He couldn't support Maggie after their son died. He chose to fall apart instead. He had started drinking after Sam got sick. If he'd been sober he could have fixed all this. He could have done something. He would still be an honest man. So, the fact is, Nate can't have a family because he knows he would hurt them…Or they'd hurt him. Either way, he worries that someone will make a mistake, that his basic nature would show through, and that everyone will get hurt.

The thing they all wish they had, why they want a family, is simple. Someone who trusts them, respects them, and likes them. Them as in who they are. Someone who listens, even if they don't want to. Someone who smiles, to help you not cry. Someone who lies, if they know you need it. Someone whose honest, just so you'll know. Someone who can tell you what to do if panic, nicely or not. Someone who looks for you when your lost. Someone who calls you on your lies. Someone who teaches you what you need to know. And so much more. They all want things in a family, things they looked for each time the team spit up. Things they found each time the team got back together. And, yes, things they won't find in a family anywhere else.


	2. The World's Greatest Thief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Parker/Sophie (Sophie/Nate)  
> Summary: Parker wants the one thing she can't take.

Nate and Sophie are great together. He's sober when they're dating and she's more settled. She even seems happy. I know that that's good, that they should be living happily ever after. They've got a past far more complicated than any of us will ever understand. And, I do want to like it, when I see them together. I know he's good to her. I just want to be better. And that means when I see them being warm and fuzzy, I feel cold and hard. But he has her heart, the one thing the world's greatest thief can't steal.


	3. Choosing Losses, Loosing Choices

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nate. Post season one. Nate thinks about the families that he's lost.

Until three years ago you didn't think death could touch your life, your family. You never thought you'd have to plan a child's funeral. You never prepared yourself to choose whether to have your son cremated. You never thought you'd argue with Maggie over sheep or cherub on Sam's gravestone.

You never thought you'd have to make these choices, but you did. And you made one more. You chose you would never have another family and never loose another loved one.

And then you went and met up with those four. Your own new family. And you lost them too.


	4. Manipulate Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drabble, not dirty like it sounds, Sophie wishes Nate saw it her way.

All relationships are about manipulation, especially when it comes to me and Nate. I manipulate him into wanting me so he won't turn me in. I manipulate him into trusting me so we can work together, manipulating other people. I manipulate him into taking the jobs I want. I manipulate him into thinking I can't act so I can keep track of how well he can lie. I spend half my time thinking up new ways to manipulate him into loving me and all I can think is why? Why can't he be the one, this once, to manipulate me?


	5. Feel Good, Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spawned from 2.01. "we should steal something" Pre-slash. 355 words. I'll delete if its really bad. (Parker/Sophie)

" _I know what would make you feel better…We could steal something."_

" _Yes!"_

_**LATER…** _

The two women sat at the kitchen counter in Nate's condo. Nathan was still out cold on the couch, snoring lightly. Both the girls had brought up their drinks from the bar and had been sipping through them while on Nate Watch. Parker's hair was hanging loosely about her shoulders, looking a bit unkempt, whereas Sophie had clipped her hair back up in a bun. They had changed their clothes as little, lost a layer, or exchanged one. Overall they were relaxed and comfortable, like before.

"If Nate won't let us steal anything I know of something else that would make you feel better." Parker inched closer on the stool towards Sophie, holding her hands up to Sophie's ear. "Do you wanna?"

Sophie pulled back giving Parker a harsh look. "Parker, I have a boyfriend. You know that." Her hand curled around her half empty glass. "I can't."

"But it'd make you feel good. I'd make you feel good." Parker slipped her hand to Sophie's upper thigh. She watched Sophie drain the mixed drink from the tumbler and slowly Parker used her sexiest whisper to entice Sophie. "And you said you couldn't, not that you didn't want to. Do you want to?"

"It doesn't matter." Sophie responded, too fast, too loud, and too sharp. "I've got a boyfriend."

"Is he here?" Parker let her hand slide between the other woman's thighs. "I don't see him." Parker tried to lean in and place her lips on Sophie's neck but Sophie stood abruptly, throwing her off balance. Parker opened her mouth but Sophie was moving.

She gathered the glasses and swerved towards the door. "We should take these back to the bar." Sophie's voice was stressed, but still flat.

Parker blocked Sophie's route and took the mugs, setting them on a nearby table. "We'll take them tomorrow." Parker stared right into Sophie's eyes. "But, you've been talking about getting the team back together, right?" Sophie nodded. "Why don't we start by getting us together?" Parker kissed Sophie gently. "Wouldn't that make you feel good?"


	6. Monster's Under the Bed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sophie looks under Nate’s bed. During 2.01 "The Beantown Bailout Job"

Nate had left the condo to check on Zoe. He told the crew what to while he was out, their parts in the scam, and said to meet back at the bar in two hours. Sophie had two hours alone in Nate's new house. What couldn't she do in two hours? She took a long hot shower, using Nate's shampoo so she could feel like he was with her all day, she's okay with being that much of a teenage girl, and even then she had an hour to spare.

She padded out of the bathroom; towel wrapped around her body, and was halfway to the door when an excellent opportunity caught her eye. She glanced over her shoulder, tucked the corner of the towel tightly inside itself and walked towards Nathan's bed. Sophie flattened herself out on her stomach and peered under the bed. It was dark, but she could see… Something. Her fingers curled around a cardboard edge of a pizza box and pulled it out from under the bed. Nate wouldn't keep an old take-out box around, unless it was being used to hide something.

The box was worn, but not terribly ancient, a few water stains on top, the edges torn and creased, little things showed that this box had had a hard life, if not a long one. Sophie knew she should just push the box back in its hiding place, pretend she never went poking around, but it was too tempting. She was a criminal; after all, show her a noose and all she sees is a loophole. In this case, her loophole was just that it Nate had something important he wouldn't keep it lying around.

As she pulled lid up, she thought over what the carton might hold:  _Probably just dirty magazines, or something from his past. Something he didn't want to advertise. But what if was personal? Pictures of Sam or Maggie? Did she want to see that?_  Sophie sat back on her heels and took a deep breath. Slowly she opened the container and looked inside. At first she wasn't sure what it was, and wasn't sure if she could touch it. Then she recognized what sat before her as IYS profiles. Four folders, thick folders, sitting in an old Pizza hut box; they were tiled across the box, but all there.

Sophie looked over the file fronts. Each was a different color, had a picture clipped to the front, and had a list of names scrolled across. Eliot's was red, perhaps because he is violent, his picture was a mug shot that must have been taken when he was twenty-three, and the list of names only had five. Hardison's file was green, his picture was more recent, him being newest to the game, and he only had two known aliases. Parker's file was orange, her picture black and white and appeared to be from a security camera, her name list read simply "PARKER".

When Sophie got to her own file, she hesitated, just for a moment, before looking it over. The folder's cover was pink and her name list ran the entire length of the page and ended in "See inside for complete list", and it was still probably missing a few. Her picture, she pulled off the page and held into the light. It was not like the others' photos. Hers, in fact, was half a snapshot from when she and Nate had met in Mexico while they were both running cons, separately. Five years ago at a bar, too much tequila, she could remember that much, but that was when she fell in love with him. They had taken that picture the second night they were there. It was of both of them, but only Sophie was visible on this half of the picture…

The picture he gave his company to track her. Something about that really irked her. He had no right to do that to her. Where the hell did he get off..?  _Why does he even have these things?_  She thought.  _It's rubbish._ She opened her file and reads over her list of crimes, getting angrier at every word.

Then she heard footsteps coming up the stairs and realized there was no escape. Flight or fight? Sophie'd take flight any day, if it was an option. But it wasn't so she picked up the pizza box/file folder and through it onto the bed. Still clutching her picture in her hand. Nathan turned into his bedroom and saw Sophie sitting on his bed, wrapped in a towel, hair hanging wet and sticking to her cheeks. She was stunning, but it was both her beauty and her surprise presence stunned him. It took him a second, but his eyes found the files on the bed and the displeased look set on Sophie's face. His eyes jumped back to her face as he tried to talk.

"Don't bother." She huffed, standing and striding up to him. "Why the fuck do you have this?" She asked, her body close enough to his that he could smell his shampoo on her. She was gesturing to the files but she had the picture from her file in between her fingers. She waited for an answer.

Nate just looked at her, unsure of what to say. He walked past her to the bed and looked at the files. Shaking his head he picks up Eliot's file. "He started working as a hitter when he was fifteen," Nate looked up at Sophie and back to the file. "He didn't get caught 'til he was almost twenty. That's the mug shot from the arrest." He pointed out the picture. Nate talked as if he was proud, almost fatherly. Then he picked up Hardison's file. "Now he," Nate laughed, "Hacked into government computers for kicks when he was twelve." He thumbed through the folder. "Made fake IDs and credit cards by seventeen. The kid had skills." He pointed Hardison's picture. "Senior photo."

Sophie had to laugh as watched Nate. She leaned against the wall and read him. He really cared about the team; he was almost fatherly as he looked over the files.

Then he picked up Parker's, and she swore she heard him sigh. "Parker named herself after the town she first committed a crime in: Parker, Kansas. Her parents died before she could talk. Between the list of placements and the medical record of broken bones and injures from her time in the system her juvenile records are twice as thick as this thing." He shook the folder a liitle. "She was shoplifting by six, stealing cars by fifteen, she broke into cash registers after stores were closed," Nate handed Sophie a very grainy, black and white photo of a young Parker. "then vaults. It wasn't until she was twenty or so that she got in to big stuff." He smiled at the thought. Handing Sophie the main photo he commented; "that's from a Tiffany's in New York."

Nate shuffled the three folders back into the box and picked up the last file: Her file. "You ran away at fifteen from a very comfortable home in Kensington and Chelsea, you grifted and stole up until your eighteenth birthday, after that you found a sugar daddy," Nate was no longer looking at the dossier. He was staring at Sophie. "Who you proceeded to rob blind." There was no humor or admiration in his voice this time. "From then on out you either acted or conned to get what you wanted." He reached for the photo, but she shook her head. "Fine, that was from—" She cut him off.

"I know what it's from you arrogant—" She was at a loss. "I don't know why you thought it was okay to give this to your company. Why did you use this against me? Tell me that." Her eyes were starting to glaze with tears and her voice was wavering. When he didn't answer she just sighed and reached out for him. For a moment, he thought she was going to slap him, and he would have taken it. Instead she grabbed his hand and pulled him up. "Come on." She huffed out, angrily dragging him out the door and down the stairs.

"Sophie," Nate whispered, trying to calm her. "What—" He stopped as he watched her dig through her purse and pull out a folded up scrap of…Paper?

Now she was crying. She smoothed it out in her palms and held it next to the picture of herself from the pizza box. It was a photograph, or part of one. She turned the pieces around and held them out to Nate. The side she added was the other half, the half with Nate. When you saw the whole picture, it showed how much love was there, between them. It was there, visibly almost, in the tear they had created when they had gone their separate ways. Nate saw it, he didn't want to but…And he could hardly believe she had the picture from that long ago. "There. I thought that night meant something. Then you went and let your bosses have it. I loved that photo, I loved the time we spent together when it was taken, I loved you when it was taken, Nathan. I just I can't believe you did that." Tears were running down her clean cheeks, but her voice was still more pain than sorrow. "I can't believe I kept that all this when you didn't even care."

"He took the pictures and went to his desk. He found a roll of Scotch tape and smoothed it over the rip, rejoining the two parts. He gave it back to his grifter and tried to smile, weakly, but made an effort. "I'm sorry. It was a job. We both got work from each other back then. But that was back then. You're a different person now, I'm a deferent person. We all are." He drew her eyes to his with a finger under her chin. "I know tape's gonna fix anything, but it's a start."

She leaned in to him and kissed his cheek. "You're shredding those files. No amount of tape will fix that if the others find out."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still hate this ending.


	7. The Time He Forgot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why Eliot doesn't like guns and a look at his past. Eliot and his sister are the caracters OC, death, guns

Eliot was around guns growing up. His dad took him hunting every fall. He can control a gun, he's a good shot. When he was seven one of his chores was to pick rats out of the tress with his pellet gun. He did paintball tournaments in middle school. He learned how to assemble and disassemble a riffle at boot camp, that was when he was fifteen. That was when he learned to ID guns by ear (and why a nine mil is different from a balloon pop, but it had spooked him for a while). Not long after that he was shown how to disarm a shooter by a friend's dad, state trooper. He loved the kick back of a good sized firearm, a 22 was always nice if you want to get power in your hands. He liked the secret strength of smaller handguns, the nine mil his mama carried was one of those.

That gun, the one Eliot's mom kept in the glove box or in her purse, is the reason Eliot doesn't like guns. It was a thing of beauty, no doubt. It had ivory inset in the handle, silver accents, leather around the edges. Always clean, polished, and loaded. Eliot and his sister, Emma, four years his junior, both knew how to take the safety off, aim, and fire by the time they were ten. It was common sense to handle a gun, and the nine was the most logical. They'd both had to kill a few rattlers, a rabid raccoon, or scare off a stray bull. Emma always made Eliot pray for the pest to go to critter heaven. There were a lot of critters to kill, it didn't hurt to ask for help. Eliot always asked for protection, especially if Eliot couldn't go out with his sister. Sometimes she needed to do things on her own. So she go out, gun in hand, to kill a coyote in the pasture, or a dog in the chicken coop.

But when Eliot was seventeen, two weeks shy of his eighteenth birthday, and Emma was fourteen, he really regretted ever having had his mama teach them how to use that little gun. Emma had come home after curfew from her first date. The boy was only six months younger than Eliot, but Eliot wanted to let Emma do this, she really like the boy. He just had a bad feeling when the kid came to pick her up. He shouldn't have let her go, he should have give the boy a talk first, but he didn't, and he still beats himself up for it. He had just thought that it was something she needed to do on her own.

When Emma got home she ran straight up to her room and locked herself in. Eliot had talked her out after twenty minutes of her telling him to go away. And the second Eliot saw his baby sister he wanted to kill that dumb ass kid she'd gone out with. Emma's lip was split, her eye bruised, her top and skirt torn, and her her cheeks tearstreeked. He asked what happened, four times. She told him nothing, four times. But then she started crying and he caught bits and pieces of her story. All he could tell was that he had forced her to do more than she was ready or willing to.

Emma fell asleep curled against Eliot's side, whimpering in her sleep. He tucked her in around one am and went his room. He had been asleep for half an hour when he was pulled out of his light sleep by a very distinctive sound...

The day after the funeral he had gone to talk to that kid who'd hurt his sister so badly. Eliot was out of town by morning, left no note, not even to Aimee, and he was beyond where anyone would bother finding him. And so, Eliot doesn't like guns. He thought they were great for a while. But when he saw that beautiful ivory pistol in a pool of Emma's blood, he figured out that weapons aren't meant to be pretty. Of course, when he ran into his sister's room that night, and saw her laying on her bed, gun in her right hand, bullet in her heart and left lung; he decided that bullets are too powerful, too easy to access, and impossible to pull back. So, when Eliot told Hardison he doesn't like guns, when wouldn't practice with Parker, when he threatened Sophie's new boyfriend if he ever hurt her, when he tries to stop Nate from killing himself... He's not overprotective. He's trying to make it up to Emma, because because the one time it mattered, he forgot pray. He didn't pray that Emma'd be safe and he didn't pray that the pest would go to heaven.


	8. Miserable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sophie calls Nate to discuss his return to drinking, and what it may mean for her return to the team. Spoilers: Bottle Job

Sophie's name flashed on the video phone's caller ID. Nathan debated the pro/cons of talking to her, but decided it best to answer. The moment she came on the line, however, he regretted his decision.

"What the bloody hell were you thinking, Nate?" Sophie screamed from the television monitor. "If this is your way to get me back you're wrong, it won't work." She paused to let him speak, when he didn't she continued her rant. "And why would you even consider drinking again? You know what it does to you, to everyone."

"Hi Sophie," Nate greeted. "Who told you?"

"Who bloody didn't?" She screeched. "Tara, Parker, Eliot, hell, even Hardison contacted me with that bit of information." Her voice finally softened. "They worry about you."

"They worry or you worry, Sophie?" Nate threw the words he had heard the last time he and Sophie had met face-to-face back.

Sophie sighed. "Is now when I walk out?"

"You already have!" Nate yelled.

Again Sophie sighed, she seems to do a lot of that around Nate these days. "Why'd you start again?"

"I didn't." Nate corrected. "I drank for one day. For one con. That's it."

"One day?" She asked.

"Uh-huh."

"Just the one con? For a job?"

"Yep."

"And this was necessary to sell your role to a mark, yeah?"

"Yes, Sophie. That's it."

Sophie pointed to someithg in the corner of her screen. "So why is there a glass of red wine on coffee table?"

Nate jumped to look at it. "Tara must have left it." He bluffed, knowing no one else drinks red.

"Sorry Nate, only you and I drink red." Sophie gave him a weak "gotcha" smile.

"Really?" Nathan tried.

"Recreationally, Eliot doesn't drink wine; Hardison prefers beers; and Parker drinks vodka, white, or champange, and beer." She made a face like they was something wrong with that. "As for Tara she will drink anything that's cheep or free, pretty, or mixed." Sophie looked down. "So, whose glass is it?"

"It's mine, and I'm not working, but…" It wasn't worth the justifaction, he was wrong.

"There are tricks, you know that." She chastised. "There's the beer chaser, the soup spit, you can say your'e allergic." Again, she sighed. "You didn't need to drink."

'But it happened."

"And would it have happened if I was there?"

"How should I know Sophie? Listen, if you were here, we'd run different scams, we'd make different plays, play different roles. Who knows, you might have been the one drinking." Nate defended. "Tara did well today, by the way. She's got some strange skills that have come in handy. Where did you two meet?"

"Several places, I don't even know what all she's done. But she is good. Almost as cocky as you are from what I hear back and forth." She laughed before returning to her train of thought. "Don't change the subject, Nathan."

"I wasn't." He avoided eye contacted with the screen. "I'm just saying that there's no problem, and not to worry."

"Not to worry? Not to worry that you are crawling back inside abottle and may never make it out?!" HEr eyes started well, "Sure, Nate, I won't worry. Just promise me that I'll have a team to come back to. You remember how we did on our own; We were miserable." Her dark brown eyes were pulling at his blue ones. "I was miserable."


End file.
